As is well known to persons doing landscape and grading work, it is desirable to simply and expediently manipulate ground material without resort to expensive machinery and skilled labor. It is not uncommon for conditions to exist that, heretofore, required extensive manipulation and treatment by more than one tool before ground has been converted from its rough, undesirable condition to a smooth, attractive usable condition with or without contours as may be desired.
Recognizing the problems, others have attempted to devise combination tools for accomplishing the desired result but without success. Particular reference is to U.S. Pat. Nos. 534,279, and 2,225,108. Both patents feature a handle having tines or teeth at one end for a raking action with a roller secured to a common base with the teeth projecting in the opposite direction. By providing rollers, these tools are merely weak rakes, with means for compacting (by rolling) the soil. In other words the tools in these patent disclosures will, inadequately, loosen ground with the teeth action of the rake portion, and then, by turning the tool 180.degree., permit the operator to again compact the ground with the roller portion without any means to level, smooth or, if desired, change the contour of the ground between these two operations. The rollers have no weight or authority to move ground because they would roll up on any accumulation. The prior art is limited to lightly compacting soil which has been leveled and smoothed by other means. Other shortcomings of the prior art will appear from the description of my improved device.
Before my invention there has not been one simple manually operated tool which could be used to do any or all of the following: loosening surface soil; light dirt moving; grading small areas; removing clods; forming and preparing garden plots; laying out walk ways; laying out drainage courses; preparing flower beds; laying out patio areas preparatory to providing stepping stones or cement; raking heavy trash and filling ditches or other low areas.